Montrose have come into the collective via The Who Charlton thread.
Their debut album is a hard rock classic and Sammy’s subsequent solo career in the late 1970s/early 1980s is worth exploring if you like guitar based hard rock with a melody attached.
Up there with Coverdale and Gillan and the greatest ever hard rock singer.
Far be it for me to quibble, but Ronnie James Dio.
Expected that.
He and Hagar win joint 3rd place.
Sammy Hagar is the best Rock vocalist for Montrose. Not so at the front of Van Halen though.
Coverdale, Gillan, Dio etc al maintain their position whichever band is behind them (yes, even Gilan with Black Sabbath).
Sorry Sammy …
Yeah you are probably right.
But do explore his post Montrose solo albums up until 1982/3 and there are some great tunes in there.
Live, loud and clear (red vinyl natch) was my introduction to him and very good it was and is too.
Bill Church on bass, the electric church…
Wasn’t he also on VTM’s wonderful St. Dominic’s preview?
Both he and bassist Bill Church were. RM also featured on Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride”
It took some finding but I tracked down their debut release after they appeared on the OGWT in 1974. The album was even better than the Whistle Test slot suggested. Ronnie Montrose was the first in your face wall of sound guitar I recall hearing. It sold poorly on release but sold steadily and finally went platinum 13 years after release . Sadly subsequent albums never recaptured the initial rush, and Ronnie fell out with Hagar, and wrongly decided synths were the key to more success.
There’s little footage of the original band around does the band justice, although the OGWT material is OK. The clip below is Ronnie revisiting some Montrose originals in 2011 with a decent enough band and captures some of that original magic.
Saw Sammy Hagar a few times at the end of the 1970s / early 80s. Always a good night but the first Montrose album is the best of his output.
My only exposure to Ronnie Montrose is this (and I’ve got to admit the guitar is stellar):
Sorry to be That Guy, but I put the first Montrose LP on yesterday by coincidence, and I had to marvel (for the 20 seconds I could tolerate for each track) at the utter barrel-scraping leftover tosh level of frat boy hard rock I heard. And I don’t mind me some metal.
The quote from Spinal Tap seems apt: Well, that’s nit-picking isn’t it?
By today standards it is crap but at the time it was very good.
Now having re listened to it has two good/average tracks and the rest is not very good.
I apologise to the many of you that believed this.
Red live is the only album worth listening to.
Please don’t apologise for your own taste, Unc. You do you, and I’ll do me. Same as it ever was (or should be) 😘
I broke my own “no thread-pissing” rule, but it was the coincidence of hearing that LP for the first time in thirty-odd years what prompted it.
I’m pretty sure I have a 12 inch (or possibly even 10 inch) single by a group Ronnie Montrose formed in the early 80’s . Really can’t remember the name of the band or indeed the single though I’ve a feeling the title of the song includes something about “rock.” Plus , as mentioned ⬆️ there were more synths than you’d maybe like.
Edith. Easy peasy thank you Google. Band was Gamma, think the album was Gamma II and the single was Dirty City